Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis

Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis PDF Author: Paula Lieber Gerson
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 0810915170
Category : Abbots
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
"Suger, abbot of the French abbey of Saint-Denis, lived from 1081 to 1151. This book of essays about his life and achievements grew out of a symposium sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art and by Columbia University ... For the symposium, twenty-three medieval scholars from all parts of the world, representing a wide range of humanistic disciplines, were brought together to discuss the varied nature of Suger's activities. Suger has been best known for his contributions as a patron of art and architecture ... As the essays in this volume devoted to Suger's political activities and historical writings demonstrate, he was, in addition to being a brilliantly innovative patron of architecture, an important architect of the French state. Only by bringing together differing humanistic perspectives on Suger and Saint-Denis has it been possible to achieve, for the first time, a fully rounded appreciation of a man who was, at the same time, a patron of the arts and literature, a politician who adroitly used his ecclesiastical position to enhance the growth and power of the monarchy, and a churchman consistently devoted to the promotion of the cult of Saint-Denis, the patron saint of his abbey and of France"--From publisher's description.

Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis

Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis PDF Author: Paula Lieber Gerson
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 0810915170
Category : Abbots
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
"Suger, abbot of the French abbey of Saint-Denis, lived from 1081 to 1151. This book of essays about his life and achievements grew out of a symposium sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art and by Columbia University ... For the symposium, twenty-three medieval scholars from all parts of the world, representing a wide range of humanistic disciplines, were brought together to discuss the varied nature of Suger's activities. Suger has been best known for his contributions as a patron of art and architecture ... As the essays in this volume devoted to Suger's political activities and historical writings demonstrate, he was, in addition to being a brilliantly innovative patron of architecture, an important architect of the French state. Only by bringing together differing humanistic perspectives on Suger and Saint-Denis has it been possible to achieve, for the first time, a fully rounded appreciation of a man who was, at the same time, a patron of the arts and literature, a politician who adroitly used his ecclesiastical position to enhance the growth and power of the monarchy, and a churchman consistently devoted to the promotion of the cult of Saint-Denis, the patron saint of his abbey and of France"--From publisher's description.

Radiance and Reflection

Radiance and Reflection PDF Author: Jane Hayward
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 0870992988
Category : Art, Medieval
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description


Music in Medieval Manuscripts

Music in Medieval Manuscripts PDF Author: Nicolas Bell
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802084323
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Book Description
"The history of music writing is covered from the earliest times until the fifteenth century, and the beautiful and often entertaining pictures of musicians in manuscripts show how music was performed."--BOOK JACKET.

Insular Manuscripts, 6th to the 9th Century

Insular Manuscripts, 6th to the 9th Century PDF Author: Jonathan James Graham Alexander
Publisher: London : H. Miller, [1975]-c1982
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description


The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals

The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals PDF Author: John Fitchen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226252035
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
"This study enables us to appreciate more fully the technical expertise and improvements which enabled the creative spirit of the day to find such splendid embodiment". -- James Lingwood, Oxford Art Journal Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Choirs of Angels

Choirs of Angels PDF Author: Barbara Drake Boehm
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588393054
Category : Choral music
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
This delightful book describes and illustrates the Metropolitan Museum's collection of nearly 40 illuminations from Italian choral manuscripts. Representing the work of Gothic and Renaissance masters both celebrated and anonymous, these precious paintings in miniature---with their compelling narrative, brilliant color, and shining gold---bear witness to exceptional aesthetic accomplishment. The choir books they illuminate are a rich source of information about the development of chant, whose unexpected transcendent tonalities have abiding appeal today. They also serve as primary sources for the study of the lives of religious communities and of the philosophy and faith that infused medieval Europe, offering a glimpse of Italy at the dawn of the Renaissance.

Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work

Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work PDF Author: Jonathan James Graham Alexander
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300060737
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Who were the medieval illuminators? How were their hand-produced books illustrated and decorated? In this beautiful book Jonathan Alexander presents a survey of manuscript illumination throughout Europe from the fourth to the sixteenth century. He discusses the social and historical context of the illuminators' lives, considers their methods of work, and presents a series of case studies to show the range and nature of the visual sources and the ways in which they were adapted, copied, or created anew. Alexander explains that in the early period, Christian monasteries and churches were the main centers for the copying of manuscripts, and so the majority of illuminators were monks working in and for their own monasteries. From the eleventh century, lay scribes and illuminators became increasingly numerous, and by the thirteenth century, professional illuminators dominated the field. During this later period, illuminators were able to travel in search of work and to acquire new ideas, they joined guilds with scribes or with artists in the cities, and their ranks included nuns and secular women. Work was regularly collaborative, and the craft was learned through an apprenticeship system. Alexander carefully analyzes surviving manuscripts and medieval treatises in order to explain the complex and time-consuming technical processes of illumination - its materials, methods, tools, choice of illustration, and execution. From rare surviving contracts, he deduces the preoccupation of patrons with materials and schedules. Illustrating his discussion with examples chosen from religious and secular manuscripts made all over Europe, Alexander recreates the astonishing variety and creativity ofmedieval illumination. His book will be a standard reference for years to come.

New York Cruciform Lectionary

New York Cruciform Lectionary PDF Author: Jeffrey C. Anderson
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271043159
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
For elegance and beauty, the Constantinopolitan scribes set standards rarely surpassed. The Gospel lectionary was among the books that attracted the most enthusiastic attention of scribes, illuminators, and their patrons. As an important liturgical item, the lectionary was often exquisitely decorated. The subject of this study, the lectionary in the Pierpont Morgan Library, is unusual even among such luxury manuscripts because its scribe laboriously copied every page of text in the shape of a cross. It is one of just three such manuscripts made in Constantinople around the middle of twelfth century, and it is the only one that contains narrative illustration. Jeffrey Anderson provides a full description of the manuscript, and he has translated and indexed its calendar of saints. Each of the miniatures is reproduced, described, and discussed, and Anderson relates some scenes to versions found in other Byzantine lectionaries and Gospels. The illustrations are attributed to two illuminators, and in a separate chapter Anderson situates their contributions with regard to the ruling, writing, and illumination of the pages. He also relates, through style, the cruciform lectionaries to dated twelfth-century monuments to establish their place in the history of Byzantine art.

The Pietà in French Late Gothic Sculpture

The Pietà in French Late Gothic Sculpture PDF Author: William H. Forsyth
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 0870996819
Category : Pietà
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
The image of the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ in her lap caught the popular imagination in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Forsyth, Curator Emeritus of Medieval Art at The Metropolitan Museum, surveys 167 Pieta sculptures, examining the image's rise, spread, and significance and focusing on the intriguingly diverse depictions of the Virgin's emotional state, as well as other distinctive regional variations. In addition, written sources of the Pieta image and its references in mystical writings are discussed. A catalogue provides summary information about some 1,250 Pietas. Includes 200 bandw illustrations and five maps. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition

The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition PDF Author: Paul J. Alexander
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520312430
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Throughout Christian history, apocalyptic visions of the approaching end of time have provided a persistent and enigmatic theme for history and prophecy. Apocalyptic literature played a particularly important role in the medieval world, where legends of the Antichrist, Gog and Magog, and the Last Roman Emperor were widely circulated. Although scholars have long recognized that a body of Byzantine prophetic literature served as the source for these ideas, the Byzantine textual tradition, its sources, and the way in which it was transmitted to the West have neve been thoroughly understood. For more than fifteen years prior to his death in 1977, Paul J. Alexander devoted his energies to the clarification of the Byzantine apocalyptic tradition. These studies, left uncompleted at his death, trace the development of a textual tradition that passed from Syriac through Greek to Slavonic and Latin literature. Using a combination of philological and historical detection, the author establishes the time, place, and circumstances of composition for each of the major surviving texts, identifying lost works known only through descriptions. In showing how Byzantine prophecy served as a bridge between ancient eschatological works and the medieval West, Alexander demonstrates that apocalyptic literature represents a creative source for the expression of political and religious thought in the medieval world. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.